There Is Salvation in No One Else

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests
and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them,
annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in
Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and
put them in custody until the morrow, for it was already evening.
But many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of
the men came to about five thousand. On the morrow their rulers and
elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas
the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who
were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in the
midst, they inquired, "By what power or by what name did you do
this?" Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,
"Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today
concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man
has been healed, be it known to you all, and to all the people of
Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you
crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is
standing before you well. This is the stone which was rejected by
you builders, but which has become the head of the corner. And
there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Radically Contradictory Claims on Our Lives

The Star Tribune called attention Friday to a change in Saddam
Hussein's rhetoric from a secular strategist to a Muslim zealot:
"With the outbreak of war, some sense an almost messianic
tone—particularly in his speech Thursday after the first wave
of allied bombing raids, using images of President Bush as Satan
and courageous Iraqis as 'descendants of prophets and
believers.'"

What this does is make more and more clear that in this global
village called earth, where we can follow minute by minute
developments in a war half way around the world, there are powerful
and radically contradictory claims being made on our lives. Is our
president Satan? Are zealous and patriotic Muslim Iraqis the true
sons of the prophets and the true believers? This is another way of
saying: Is Allah, as he is known in Islam, the one true God, and is
Mohammed a true prophet whose writings are the final decisive
revelation for faith and life? Or another way to put it: Is the
Muslim religion another valid pathway to salvation and heaven?

A Radically Pluralistic Age

Let's be clear, I am not saying that this war is a conflict
between Christianity and Islam. I do not see America as a Christian
nation. I do not see Christianity embodied in any nation or any
ethnic group. One of the glories of our faith is that there is no
geographic center. There is no holy shrine. There is no national
identity. We are aliens and exiles on the earth out of step with
every human authority and institution, even when we submit to them
for Christ's sake. And we come from every race and all social
strata and every nation. This is not a war of Christians against
Muslims.

But it is a war with powerful religious impulses. President Bush
did call Billy Graham. Hussein did kneel on his prayer rug. And he
does want to cast this war in terms of a holy war. But all I am
saying now is that this fact makes more plain than ever that our
world is radically pluralistic. There are contradictory religions
calling for absolute allegiance.

This pluralism is more and more manifest in our own land as
well. The old consensus that enabled us to function with some
coherency of moral expectation in our legal and social system is
rapidly disappearing. And what we are finding is that the new
atmosphere of pluralism is not a tolerance of all views, but rather
a new secular orthodoxy. There is in its claim to tolerance an
emphatic discrimination against old views that threaten the morally
empty relativism of today. This is the atmosphere—a hostile
atmosphere—in which we will more and more have to live as
Christians and bear witness to Jesus—the absolute uniqueness
of Jesus, the global uniqueness and supremacy of Jesus.

That is what today's text is about. And it is extremely
relevant. Globally relevant! At this moment.

A Healing with Global Implications

Let's recap what is happening in Acts. In chapter 3 the risen
Jesus heals a man through the faith and words of Peter and John.
The man had been lame from birth, but he gets up and runs through
the temple praising God. A crowd gathers and Peter preaches. As he
preaches, you hear that what is at stake here is not a merely a
local religious phenomenon. It has to do with everybody in the
world.

For example, Peter says things like this: the Jesus who healed
this man is "the Author of life" (3:15); he was raised from the
dead by God (3:15); he is the fulfillment of 1,500-year-old prophecy
(3:22); he is waiting now in heaven until the time when he will
come and restore all things to what God meant them to be (3:21);
and in the meantime "all the families of the earth are to be
blessed" through him (3:25)—including families from Iraq and
Saudi Arabia and Israel and America and the USSR. This little out
of the way healing that took place in Jerusalem has global
significance. Jesus is no tribal god. He is the Author of all life
and the Lord of the universe.

Peter and John Arrested and Interrogated

At this point Acts 4:1 says that the priests and the captain of
the temple and the Sadducees came and arrested Peter and John and
put them into custody overnight. They were angry because Peter and
John were telling everybody that Jesus was alive and that they
could rise from the dead too if they believed in Jesus. In fact
verse 4 says that the number of the disciples increased to
5,000—that's what can happen after two sermons when the power
of the Holy Spirit is poured out in fullness.

From Local to Universal

The next morning the rulers and elders and scribes gather and
interrogate Peter and John. Verse 7: "By what power or by what name
did you do this [that is, heal this man]?" Now watch how Peter
moves again from the local to the universal. Verse 10: "Be it known
to you all," Peter says, "that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him
this man is standing before you well." So Peter starts with the
offensive fact that Jesus is from a particular, local village that
nobody expected any good to come from—Nazareth. "Can anything
good come out of Nazareth?" Worse yet, this Jesus was less than a
local nobody. He was such a menace you crucified as a criminal.
He's got a common name, Jesus, (Josh for short!); he's from a no
count town, Nazareth; he was executed like a common murderer.
That's who healed this man. This very Jesus.

Because he is alive. And now the unheard of claim comes out:
"God raised him from the dead." Now that is not so local anymore.
Because God is not local. God is universal. God knows everything
and is everywhere and runs the world. If God took note of this man
and raised him from the dead, then there is something very
non-local, non-provincial, something very global about who he is
and what he does.

Then (in verse 11) Peter uses the words of Psalm 118:22 to say
the same thing in a word picture: "This is the stone which was
rejected by you builders, but which has become the head of the
corner." If you compare the kingdom of God to a building, then the
builders are the religious leaders. They examined the stone called
Jesus of Nazareth to see if he could be a brick in the wall of
truth. They said No and rejected him and threw him out as
unusable. But God, the main architect, came along and saw the stone
lying in the grave and picked him up and made him not only a brick
in the wall, but the head of the corner—the chief stone in
the building. Men rejected Jesus as a merely local menace with no
significance beyond the killing hill of Golgotha. But God has made
Jesus the universal head over all his house. As Acts 2:36 says: God
has made him both Lord and Christ."

Jesus as the Only Way of Salvation

Peter draws out the implication of this universal lordship of
Jesus in verse 12: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is
no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be
saved." Since God raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead and since
God has made him head over all his house—over all the kingdom
and all the redeemed—therefore Jesus is now the only way to
heaven, and the confession of his name is the only hope of
salvation from sin and judgment.

We need to feel the force of this universal claim in our
pluralistic age. "There is salvation in no one else!" Do you really
mean no one, Peter? Or are you just speaking in a limited Jewish
context—only among the Jews there is no other way to heaven
than their true Messiah? No, he says, the reason there is salvation
in no one else is that "there is no other name under heaven [not
just no other name in Israel, but no other name under heaven,
including the heaven over Iraq and the heaven over America] given
among men [not just among Jews, but among humans] by which we must
be saved."

No Other Name

But there is even more here that we need to see. Sometimes
people will say, "Yes, Jesus is the only source of salvation, but
you don't have to know him in order to benefit from the salvation
he offers. In other words, if you are a faithful Muslim or Hindu or
Jew or animist, you will be saved by Jesus. There is salvation in
no one else, but you don't have to believe on him in order to be
saved by him."

But that is not what Peter meant. Peter focused on the NAME of
Jesus. "There is no other NAME under heaven by which we must be
saved." He is
saying something more than that there is no other
source of saving power that you can be saved by under some OTHER
name. The point of saying, "There is no other NAME," is that we are
saved by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. His name is our
entrance into fellowship with God. The way of salvation by faith is
a way that brings glory to the name of Jesus. Peter says in Acts
10:43, "Every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins
through his name." The name of Jesus is the focus of faith and
repentance. In order to believe on Jesus for the forgiveness of
sins, you must believe on his name. That is, you must have heard of
him and know who he is as a particular man who did a particular
saving work and rose from the dead.

Paul put it this way in Romans 10:13–15: "Everyone who calls on
the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are men to call upon
him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in
him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without
a preacher? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?" There
is salvation in no one else—and that means there must be
missionaries, who make him known by name so that people can believe
and call on his name for salvation. Jesus is the way, the truth, and
the life, apart from him no one comes to the Father (John
14:6).

A Truth That Either Makes Converts or Enemies

Peter pushed the universality of Jesus from the no-count town of
Nazareth as far as it could be pushed. Jesus is absolutely unique.
He is absolutely supreme among all the gods and lords of the world
religions. Knowing him and believing on his name is absolutely
necessary for salvation. For since the cross and resurrection there
is no other way to God and to heaven. Therefore, as Paul says in
Acts 17:30–31, "God commands all men everywhere to repent, because
he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in
righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has
given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead."

This is a fundamental biblical fact that we have to come to
terms with if we aim to be biblical Christians in a pluralistic
nation and a pluralistic world. It's the kind of truth that either
makes converts or makes enemies. It is not a live-and-let-live
truth.

What Does It Call for in Our Lives?

1. Understanding

It calls for understanding—the understanding of our
faith. If there are not many ways to God, but only one way, then
the highest priority in life is to understand what that way is and
to follow it. If all sincere roads lead to heaven, then
understanding the road you are on to make sure it is the right one
is not very important. The supremacy of Christ as the only way to
God calls for understanding.

2. Courage

It calls for courage. The uniqueness and supremacy of Jesus
Christ is the cause of all Christian martyrdom. There is no point
in dying for one faith if another will lead you to God. What gets
you killed is believing that reality is one way and not another
way. So when the state says: "Confess that Caesar is Lord," or:
"Confess that Allah is the one true God and Mohammed is his
prophet," the Christian says, "I will not and I cannot." Why?
Because Caesar is not Lord and Mohammed is not a true prophet.
Jesus is Lord, and Jesus alone.

3. A Radical Interpretation of the War in the Middle East

This truth of the uniqueness and supremacy of Jesus calls for
a radical interpretation of war in the Middle East. Is there a war
going on in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Israel? No, there are two
wars.

One is being fought with cruise missiles and scud missiles and
fighters and bombers. It is not a war between Christians and
Muslims. The great majority of the American and allied troops are
secular relativists who believe less in Jesus Christ than the
Muslims believe in Mohammed. This war is between a Muslim state and
secular states. It is a war about national boundaries, the rights
of nations, the security of states, and the availability of natural
resources. It is not a confrontation of Christianity and Islam.

But there is another war going on. A far more important one. A
war for the hearts of men and women. The stakes are higher because
they are eternal life or eternal judgment. The war is not being
fought with missiles and bombers and tanks. Nor any other material
weapon. It's being fought on the Christian side with the weapons of
love: prayer, faith, spiritual wisdom, sacrifice, and the glorious
good news of Jesus Christ. The Christian goal is salvation for Arab
peoples. The war is being fought on the Muslim side in Iraq and
Saudi Arabia with oppression and anti-Christian state
sanctions.

In Iraq, Patrick Johnstone says (in Operation World, p. 242),
"It is virtually impossible for a Muslim to confess Christ and
live." No open Christian witness is allowed. Missionaries were
expelled in 1969. 14,000 Christians fled the country between 1972
and 1977. There are 12 million Arabs, 2.8 million Kurds, and
numerous minority groups in Iraq without Christ and without
hope.

Saudi Arabia is one of the least evangelized nations of the
world. There are no known Christian believers among the Saudis, no
Christian workers are allowed to enter the country, and no
Christian is even allowed to set foot in the city of Mecca.
Christian literature and Bibles are banned. And expatriate
Christians live under strict surveillance. Ten million Muslims in
Saudi Arabia live without Christ and without the hope of eternal
life.

Because Jesus Christ is the only hope of the world, and "there
is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

There are two wars going on in the Middle East. The one
threatens the earthly life of thousands. The other seeks the
eternal life of millions. Does not God want to deal with us this
morning about how utterly preoccupied we are with the one war, and
how relatively ignorant and indifferent we are about the other?

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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